Sunday, January 26, 2014

I was up until the early hours last night, totally absorbed in some full-on bodging...something I haven't done in a while. The subject of my attentions was this scratchbuild of a narrow gauge wagon for 7mm scale.

I like Narrow Gauge railways. I started off modelling in Gn15 (which I know I'll come back to again ine day) and had a couple of attempts at 4mm modelling (OO9).. neither of which was very succesful.7mm might offer me the ideal scale/size combination but I just haven't got around to building anything yet. (I had a dabble at On30 - great fun bashing the wagons, but I want to do something UK based really).I picked up a gorgeous GVT tram loco from ebay a while ago - it was a real bargain as it's a scratch-built model, mostly of plastic card , with great detail. Not sure about the running mechanism as it's a standard Hornby lively 040 mech.. but that can be changed.Anyway - I have a number of unbuilt and part built plastic 4mm wagon chassis knocking about and that formed the platform upon which this wagon was built. I'm really no expert on this stuff, and how all the bits work, so reference to photos (mostly W&L) and some common sense applied. It's essentially a bog standard 3 plank open with one drop side.

I had some doubts about the size.. it seemed pretty big, but after some measuring and comparing, I think this may be down to the fact that OO9 is so much smaller and Gn15 is modelling a much smaller prototype.Construction is card, coffee stirrers, sticky label strapping (rivets punched on reverse side), bits of old handrail, wire, chain and and whitemetal bits.. proper bodging! Hopefully a paint job will bring it all together.Anyway. I really enjoyed the process. Ages since I really got into building something. (I've been mostly distracted with toy soldiers lately, which involves a lot of painting but not as much making.. the exception being an ethiopian hut I've been working on.. more on that later) But - not so sure about the result. I wonder if actually I'd be more pleased with having made a kit.